Gap found in background screening for gun permits

Those with illegible fingerprints escape further scrutiny

For as long as a decade, Florida has not been conducting further background checks on applicants for gun-carry permits in cases in which the fingerprint cards submitted were illegible.

Each of the two state agencies involved thought the other was doing the necessary additional screening. Neither was.

After two failed attempts to obtain good-quality fingerprints, state law requires a search for prior arrests using the candidate's name. Such nationwide background checks are performed by the FBI. To obtain the service, however, Florida must ask for the FBI's help.

The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which administers the concealed-weapon licensing program, thought the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was requesting the assistance. The FDLE, meanwhile, thought the agriculture department was.

"I assumed they did," FDLE bureau chief Martha Wright, who oversees background checks, said of her colleagues at Agriculture. "I'm surprised that they don't."

Sterling Ivey, Agriculture spokesman, said his office was unaware the checks weren't being requested by the FDLE until informed by the Sun Sentinel.

"We have had several internal meetings today regarding the potential gap you identified," Ivey said Wednesday. Further meetings will take place on how to correct the problem, he said.

"We are going to work with FDLE to complete the name checks," Ivey said.

The Agriculture Department found Florida hasn't been requesting the FBI's assistance in providing screening by applicant name since 2002. At the time, the Concealed Weapon Permitting Program was housed at the Florida Department of State.

Without any disqualifying offenses reported, applicants with the illegible prints would have been approved for the carry permits, administrators said.

Neither the FDLE nor the Agriculture Department could say how often that may have happened, or how frequently successive fingerprint submissions are rejected because they are of poor quality.

Vendors who process fingerprints say the skin on the fingertips of some people is too thin or worn to produce a clear print. Age and occupation can be a factor. People whose hands often come in contact with chemicals or water can be affected.

The Agriculture Department has a form letter that it sends to gun-carry applicants when their fingerprint samples are deemed insufficiently legible. It asks the applicants to submit a second set.

"This will be the last fingerprint submission we will request: no further submissions are necessary after two cards have been rejected by the FBI because of legibility problems," the letter says.

Wright said the FBI used to automatically conduct the criminal history checks when back-to-back fingerprint submissions were no good. But the FBI "moved to a new system and stopped doing that. It's been a problem ever since," she said.

Now, the FBI requires state agencies to fax requests for background checks, which Wright said can take weeks or longer to process.

As of May, according to the state, Florida had 939,859 people licensed to carry concealed weapons, including 109,780 from out of state.